Month: May 2017

In a particular order:

1) Meanwhile Back at Mama’s – Released in 2014 as part of the Sundown Heaventown album by Tim McGraw, Meanwhile Back at Mama’s is my favorite song of all time….period.  Listening to McGraw sing about a small town and how he wants change only to return years later is a situation that sits close to me.

2)  The Downeaster Alexa – Written and released by Billy Joel in 1989, as a track on the album Storm Front.  This song was released 10 years before I was born.  The song is named after his daughter Alexa, who he also named his downeaster — a type of boat — after.  This is the the third song of Billy Joel’s I had listened to (Piano Man and Big Shot came first).  However, this is the first song Billy Joel song I listened to with my father.  This is one of our greatest connections.

3) Californication – Written and released by Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1999, as the title track of his album of the same name.  Every time I listen to this song (which is daily) I can imagine every little piece of Hollywood mentioned throughout the song.

4) Into the Night– Chad Kroeger (Nickleback) teams up with Santana for a smooth collaboration of North American and Hispanic of music styles.  Released in 2007 the amazing guitar solos and simple lyrics are the reason that I can put this song on repeat for hours at a time.

5) Wait for You –  Elliot Yamin wrote a song that I have listened to quite possibly more than any song.  I say this because I can still remember my listening on my Mother’s second generation iPod that was bigger than my hand.  I listened to this song on repeat (along with Phantom Planet’s California) for hours at a time.

– Buzz

I listen to a lot of music and for me there are so many it’s hard to choose at times.  Here are a few more that nearly made it as spot number five:

• Vienna by Billy Joel
• Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down
• Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
• 7 Years by Lucas Grahm
• Viva La Vida by Coldplay
• Photograph by Nickleback
• Girl from Ipanema by Frank Sinatra
• Harder to Breathe by Maroon
• Toto by Africa
• Mockingbird by Rob Thomas

This is a highly debated topic and while my viewpoint is not groundbreaking, I hope that my thoughts will register with those choosing whether or not to attend college.

Father = Bachelor’s Degree
Mother = Bachelor’s Degree
Sister = Working toward Bachelor’s Degree
Friend = Working toward Associate Degree
Friend(s) = All planning on attending college.

The question I have for all of them is: Why?

A few facts taken from a recently published Forbes article:

– $1.3 Trillion in student debt
– Over 44 million borrowers
– An average student from the Class of 2016 has $37,172 in debt from student loans.

If you live in the US and you know anybody that has attended college then at some point you have probably heard the phrase “everybody goes to college.” Is this true? The answer is mostly, and it is supported by the NCES. Studies show that from 2000 to 2014 enrollment has increased by 31%…A huge increase!

Enough with the stats, here’s my take:

College is NOT necessarily the path for everyone.

You may say, “Buzz, how can this be true?” The answer is that for some people it is the right path, and for others it is not.  How do you know?  This list may help:

Reasons To Go

– You have your mind set on a career path that REQUIRES, not recommends, a college degree or certification. Yes, I am talking to all the doctors, lawyers, and aeronautical engineers out there. If you are going into a field that truly needs the education then that is a good reason to go to school.

– The school you are going to has an extremely high job placement in the field you are attempting to go into.

– The school you are going to attend is offering large scholarships that will cover the majority if not all of your debt.

Reasons NOT To Go

– There isn’t a guaranteed return, in fact you are almost guaranteed a negative return these days.  The chances of an individual incurring debt from college is greater than graduating a clean slate.

– You want to experience the “college-life” which often translates to the “party-life.”  As a teenager I have never been a part of the party-crowd.  For me to say that going to school to party is a waste isn’t necessarily fair, but I can say that I know many people who chose to go to “party” schools.  These people often didn’t graduate on time, incurred large debts throughout their education, and graduated with a degree that meant nothing to them.

– You don’t know what else to do. The default for young adults shouldn’t be to go to college. At any age — and especially the age of 18 — people in general need to search for what makes them happy, not just do what they think they should do.

– Your field might not require a degree to start in. A field like fashion design or marketing is something that most people believe that you must have a degree to break into.  My friend who works as a designer for a large corporation is living proof that no such education is needed (I’m sure many of you are wearing his designs right now).  No degree was required and this is the case for many fields.

If you are interested in reading more about how the facts utilized in this article were attained, please visit the sources below (or you could just take my word for it).

Again, college is NOT necessarily for everyone.  If you think it’s for you, great!  I wish you luck, however, if you seem to fit into the mold of Reasons NOT To Go, then I encourage you to consider another path than just attending college.

– Buzz

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/02/21/student-loan-debt-statistics-2017/#3ce207885dab (Forbes)

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/unemployment-rate-2-point-5-percent-for-college-grads-7-point-7-percent-for-high-school-dropouts-january-2017.htm (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

https://hbr.org/2016/05/two-thirds-of-college-grads-struggle-to-launch-their-careers (Harvard Business Review)

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cha.asp (National Center for Education Statistics)